Looking to start back having Bantams

[goodolboy]

Hello there. As a kid growing up I had around 25-40 bantams that I kept and had loads of fun with it. However, with school and just not the time needed to keep care of the birds. I had to sell/give away all of my birds about 5-7 years ago. Now that I am settled into being a grown up(lol), I am looking to acquire me some more of these loveable birds. I am in the process of buying my lumber and supplies to build my future homes for the birds. Browsing through the posts here, I will likely be going with Murray McMurray hatchery. Before I go through with the order of the birds though, I would like to get some feedback on a few questions I have...never purchased via a hatchery. Growing up I knew this old man who raised lots of different chickens.


Here are a few of my questions.

-I have searched around, but my main question is. If I order chicks from a hatchery. Is the ratio of Rooster/Hen just a roll of a dice, or is there a way that these hatcheries can balance out that ratio?

-When the birds arrive at my home. From Day 1 of hatching, how old will the chicks be when they arrive to my home?

-What is your favorite breed of Bantam? Mine was always Black tail White Japanese.

 

[Johnn]

i can only ansew the first you can make it so there all girls or a straight run wich is boys and girls and ancona bantam

 

[stilldeb]

I have all Bantams and love 'em (21 so far). We ordered most of them from My Pet Chicken and got them sexed. You can also order small orders from them and not get "extras". They will be 1-2 days old when they arrive. I ordered my Sultans 'straight run' (and yeah you are taking your chances with straight run - I heard of someone who ordered 15 Silkies and got 14 roosters) from Purely Poultry as MPC did not have Sultans this year, and got an unexpected TEN LF Barred Rock roos 'tossed in' with my five teeny little Sultan chicks. (I rehomed all the BRs and they have all since gone to freezer camp except one.)

I don't know what my favorite breed is, but I have Silkies, Buff Brahmas, black Cochin Frizzles, white crested black Polish, Easter Egger, Sultans, Mille Fleur D'Uccles - which are VERY sweet, and Sebrights - one golden and one silver. I am having a lot of fun with the Sultans, though, and they are beautiful, very friendly, and just started laying eggs and are laying every day so far. They are also bigger than I thought they would be, especially the roos (I got two roos out of the five - and they are beautiful and very friendly, too - I am happy with all of them.)

Get some chickens!

deb g

 

[goodolboy]

Thanks for the quick replies....I checked into My Pet Chicken and I would go with them. The main breeds I am looking for are Black Tail White Japanese, B.B. Red's and Silkies. It doesn't seem like they carry the first two. Anyone know of any hatcheries that use the wing sexing method? It doesn't appear Murry Mcmurray uses that method and appears you can only buy Straight Run.

 

[1muttsfan]

Hi goodolboy and welcome to BYC from michigan

I am very fond of the bantam ameracaunas that I hatched out this spring, they are lavender, lay a very pretty egg, and are personable and hardy. And much calmer than my large fowl silver ams.

 

[thekid]

There is one place that does sex bantams and that website is mypetchicken.com but if you are ordering from a different hatchery they will be straight run ( roll of the dice ) but if you do decide to get standards go to meyerhatchery.com they also have very good bantams


When the birds arrive at your house they will be two or three days old

 

[goodolboy]

I must say Meyer's has a far superior website layout over Murray. Seems like they will be carrying the Japanese breeds....may just have to go with them. Wish they had B.B. Red's though

Thanks for all the replies

 

[chickenbuddy]

I would suggest getting some quail antwerp belgians. My are/were really friendly and make good mothers. In fact the crosses I got from these hens and black tailed white japanese were some of my favorites (including the offspring of these crosses). They were flighty, but made great free rangers and mothers.

 

[jeslewmazer]

Never order from them before, but what about Welp Hatchery.

I don't know if any hatchery sex day old bantams except My Pet Chicken. Straight run will 50/50 chance on each chick.

They will be 2-3 days old when they arrive

I like OEGB, especially my Silver Duckwing.

That's just my two cents